The state's 34 million residents are invited to spend the summer reading and discussing John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Grapes of Wrath." The statewide read-along, announced Friday, marks California's debut as literary host.

More than 60 U.S. cities, counties and states have set out to read together.

of course, is writing its own script, dispatching celebrities to add glitz to its read-along gatherings.

Penguin-Putnam will release "The Grapes of Wrath" in a Spanish-language edition. "Las Uvas de la Ira" is expected to hit stores early next month.

In kicking off the program Friday, Sharon Davis, wife of Gov. Gray Davis, applauded the book choice, saying the story of a family's struggle to find a better life in California is as relevant today as when it was written in 1939.

She had read the book in high school and plans to reread it this summer. She noted that this year marks the centennial of Steinbeck's birth.

"I think reading this as an adult will give me a different perspective," Davis said. "It's accessible and visible. It's the story of immigration to California."

The cross-country push to get people to crack a book is about more than reading and improving literacy. Organizers see collective reads as a clever way to get strangers to talk to one another, forge friendships and create a shared sense of community.

The resulting program, called "If All Seattle Read the Same Book," was launched with Russell Banks' "The Sweet Hereafter." Booksellers in the area say they sold 10,000 copies of the book and estimate that 20,000 people participated.

"One of the hardest things about this sort of project is to be able to quantify the results," Pearl said. "Except for the public events around the book, you have no way of knowing who's participating."

She added, "What I tell people is that numbers don't reflect the purpose. The point of the project is to bring people together to talk about good books."

Some cities have turned enough pages to get to their second or third book.

In Chicago, Mayor Richard Daley appeared on television to promote the program and its first book, Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird." Retailers and groups held dozens of events, ranging from staging a re-enactment of the novel's trial scene to offering free coffee nights at Starbucks. The city is now reading Elie Wiesel's "Night."

San Francisco resident David Miller was a University of Chicago graduate student when One Book, One Chicago was launched.

"There were moments when I'd be on the train or at a cafe reading 'Mockingbird' and I'd look up and see other people reading it," Miller said. "There would be this kind of look, a nod or a wink, or a 'Hey, what chapter are you on?' It was a shared experience."

Book publishers and associations welcome the newfound literary fervor. While consumers in America spent more than $31 billion on books in 2001, year- to-year expenditures remain stagnant, according to the Book Industry Study Group Inc.

"Anything that creates buzz for books is a good thing," said Avin Domnitz, executive director of the American Booksellers Association. "Oprah's Book Club was great. Harry Potter brought literally hundreds of thousands of kids back into books."

Not everyone, though, is jumping on the California bookmobile. Some say Steinbeck's work is not hip or diverse enough. Others contend the program is misguided.

Pete Leupold, a retired engineer and self-professed bibliophile, said he would not read Steinbeck again because "there are tons of good books out there and precious little time."

"We thought there would be no better way to get people talking about their own experiences than to have people read an archetypal book," Quay said. "The goal isn't just to get people talking about a book but to get people talking together." The California State Library is the primary financial backer of the program, which was done in partnership with the California Center for the Book.

Next fall, more than 140 libraries across the state -- which have received grants of between $500 and $1,000 each -- will hold discussions, readings and events.

Oakland's Marsha Peterson, an avid reader and a member of a book club, embraces the effort. She said "The Grapes of Wrath" is one of her favorite books.

"I love the prose, the imagery, the feel that you're on a journey with those people," Peterson said. "You really felt their agony, their desperation. You even felt the dust. It's a story about being poor and struggling to get somewhere better. It's a human story."

More information on the California Reads program, including a list of participating libraries and a resource guide for teachers, may be found on the California Council for the Humanities' Web site:
www.calhum.org
.

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